Where do I like to hang out on a sunny day in Washington State? A cloudy day? Just about any day?
The Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge.
I've shared it with you before at http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/wash... Now I return for a new look.
Just last week I once again took the beautiful five-and-a-half mile walk through the Nisqually Delta and enjoyed the fauna and flora of one of my favorite places. It's where I go when I want to exercise and be alone (throw in a few hellos with other walkers as I make my way around the delta landscape). The trail through the riparian forest is long enough one can find solitude amidst other walkers.
If you stop to visit, there seems to be a birder here-or-there who will take time to talk about his/her plight. A lot of birders pass time at the refuge - you will find them lining the long window of the visitor's center just about every day; they also set up cameras and binoculars along the trail at observation decks and photo blinds on occasion.
I started my walk enjoying the trees, even the ones no longer alive. I have a reverence for our forests and love to be amidst large trees. Trees hold a special presence I feel when among them. They have a character all their own.
This leaf on the wooden planked trail surprised me. It is not yet the season for leaves to fall, but we have had an unseasonably dry summer and they are falling early.
The refuge has seven miles of trails, including a one-mile loop trail to the Twin Barns where environmental talks are occasionally featured.
If you choose the longer loop trail, which I love, you'll see Luhr Beach across the way, the Olympics and lots of wildlife habitat. The delta is where the freshwater of the Nisqually River joins the saltwater of Puget Sound. Result: an estuary ripe with nutrients and detritus. This photo is looking towards Luhr Beach.
As I was enjoying my walk a field mouse scurried across the trail in front of me, as did a garter snake. We don't have poisonous critters on this side of the mountains, so they don't bother me. I know snakes are good for the environment.
I disturbed the many flocks of birds on my walk; they moved to let me go my way, then returned to their roosts. Unfortunately I do not know all the birds, especially the migratory ones, so I can't report all I saw. I do know terns, great blue herons, sea gulls, Canada geese, tree swallows, etc. The great blue herons never cease to amaze me in their beauty. They are such a large, graceful bird. They have a colony nesting site on the conifer-covered bluff overlooking the delta.
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